The field of art to which this invention pertains is the production of a hydrogenated hydrocarbonaceous product and an anhydrous hydrogen halide stream from a halogenated organic stream.
There is a steadily increasing demand for technology which is capable of treating an organic stream containing halogenated compounds to produce hydrogenated organic compounds and a hydrogen halide stream. The preferred hydrogen halide stream is anhydrous which minimizes the cost of building the processing plant based upon metallurgical considerations.
With the increased environmental emphasis for the treatment and recycle of organic waste streams containing halogenated compounds, there is an increased need for improved processes to convert the organic waste stream to produce hydrogenated organic compounds and hydrogen halide. For example, during the disposal or recycle of potentially environmentally harmful organic waste streams, an important step in the total solution to the problem is to produce an organic stream which facilitates the ultimate resolution to produce product streams which may subsequently be handled in an environmentally acceptable manner. One environmentally attractive method of treating organic waste streams is by hydrogenation. Therefore, those skilled in the art have sought to find feasible and economical techniques to convert organic waste streams containing halide compounds to hydrogenated organic compounds and to recover the concomitantly produced hydrogen halide. When the hydrogen halide is recovered by means of some type of aqueous scheme or system, the metallurgy requirements become an economic consideration and, therefore, it has recently become highly desirable where possible to recover the resulting hydrogen halide via an anhydrous method.